Government dropped use of OBC lists for Census as those featured ‘classes, not castes’, say officials

The Union government had considered using the Central list and the States’ lists of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) while deciding that the 2027 Census will use an open-column method to enumerate castes, officials told The Hindu . However, following deliberations, it emerged that this would present a problem “because the list of OBCs is not a list of castes, it is a list of classes”, the officials said.

According to the officials, several entries in OBC lists do not represent a caste but describe “different groups of people, like those engaged in begging”. A similar problem arose when considering the use of States’ lists. One official said these issues surfaced while the government was assessing whether the methodology used in State-conducted caste surveys, such as in Bihar and Telangana, could be replicated.